Indulgence Chocolatiers features a tasting bar where one can enjoy pairings of their truffles with flights of beer (pictured), wine and cheese.

Milwaukee shops offer twists on traditional treats

This hasn't been the sweetest summer, unless fog, damp and cold are your thing. But we can make it sweeter.

I stopped in at three newer places and one that flies a bit under the radar, and came up with a spectrum of sweets to satisfy a craving, whether it's hot or not outdoors.

Indulgence Chocolatiers

Hey, bartender. How about a cherry tobacco truffle with a red wine, or orange-coriander hazelnut praline with that glass of white?

The sleek tasting bar at Indulgence Chocolatiers in Walker's Point matches its truffles, chocolate bars and other confections with white wines, red wines, beers and cheeses.

Look over the menu and consider the options: a flight of three white wines ($16) or red wines ($16), a flight of four beer styles ($14), a flight of four cheeses ($13), all matched with a specific Indulgence chocolate. Or, try just one (prices around $9 for wine with chocolate, $5 for beer and $4 for cheese with chocolate), or one of each, for that matter.

The Indulgence worker behind the bar provides a guided tour as she serves the pairings, describing the flavor notes in that glass of wine, say, and how it frames the notes in the chocolate. A glass of Bodegas Triton Tridente Tempranillo echoed the cherry tobacco truffle, for instance.

Co-owner Julie Waterman and head chocolatier Mariana Cyr choose the pairings, determining which wines, beers and cheeses to put on the menu and then tweaking any chocolate recipes to complement them.

The menu changes every three or four months; a new menu is due in July.

The tasting bar was great fun. I only wished it were open later — this would be an ideal after-dinner destination. As it turns out, the shop is planning to extend its hours soon on Friday and Saturday nights.

For the curious, indecisive, hungry or just plain greedy, Purple Door has come up with an ice cream flight ($6). Like a beer flight, it's served on a wooden paddle; instead of glasses fitted into those holes, they're sturdy, compostable cups holding a choice of flavors. Good for two to share, if two can agree on four flavors.

Of course, ice cream can be had simply by the scoop ($2.25 for a "kiddie" scoop, $3.65 for one full scoop and $5.50 for a double). Those scoops are a robust 4 ounces each. To have it in a waffle cone made at the shop, add a dollar.

Banana splits, sundaes, shakes, malts, sodas, floats, ice cream sandwiches in two sizes (espresso ice cream between molasses cookies is a dream) — the decisions don't get any easier. I chose blackberry quark ice cream for a shake; unfortunately, the milk thinned out its flavor. Next time I'd go with a bolder ice cream, like the dark chocolate or the lively, memorable garam masala.

La Michoacana Neveria

This ice cream parlor inside Chicken Palace at 35th and National sells La Michoacana treats — the pops you'll find at the people-powered hand carts around the south side — but it also sells ice cream and my current obsession, the mangonada.

The sundae ($5 for a medium, $7 for a large) layers mango ice cream, chopped fresh mango, chamoy — the sweet-sour-spicy fruit-based sauce — and a sprinkle of chile powder. Customers can doctor it with the hot sauce and salt that are on the counter. The result is a refreshing sweet that's endlessly flavorful; those notes of acid and mild heat are undeterred by frozen taste buds.

In the freezer case are ice creams and sorbets in flavors like pine nut and tequila with almonds, and treats such as frozen bananas ($3) dipped in chocolate and rolled in coconut or nuts.

And there are paletas, so many paletas ($2): cream-based frozen pops, such as pistachio or vanilla with slices of strawberry or strawberry and kiwi ornamenting them, and water-based pops such as cucumber and guava. Available flavors change from day to day.

Cream City Swirl

It seems every place has a frozen yogurt shop now, if not two. The Bay View neighborhood got its self-serve fro yo along with gelato from La Coppa when Cream City Swirl opened this year. The shop's twist is that it serve dessert crepes, too.

The crepes are made to order and start at a base price of $3.95. The price ticks up with toppings — a choice of 20 or so, not including toppings from the fro yo bar. They range from Nutella and peanut butter to mascarpone and fresh fruit, and prices range from 40 cents to $1.25, depending on the topping.

Cream City Swirl comes up with a few combinations of its own. One is the KK Classic ($5.25), with lemon, butter and sugar. Some of the combinations change up; one this spring was the Chocolate Wow ($6.25), a chocolate crepe with chocolate chips and whipped cream. A learning curve likely led to the overdone crepe I had in my KK Classic; the Chocolate Wow was perfect, a satisfying sweet.